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Viva World Cup
Founded	2006
Region	International (NF-Board)
Current champions	Padania
Most successful team	Padania; (2 titles)
	2009 VIVA World Cup

The VIVA World Cup is an international football tournament organized by the New Federation Board, an umbrella association for nations unaffiliated with FIFA, planned to be held every two years.

[edit] History

[edit] Early Years

[edit] Inauguration

In April 2005, the NF-Board announced that Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus had been chosen to host the inaugural VIVA World Cup, having successfully hosted a tournament to celebrate 50 years of the KTFF, called KTFF 50th Anniversary Cup, featuring fellow NF-Board member Sápmi and FIFA-unaffiliated Kosovo. The NF-Board hoped that sixteen teams would take part, drawn from across its membership.

[edit] Controversy

In the Spring of 2005, a new government was elected in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, keen to foster relations with other nations. The NF-Board claim that the government of Ferdi Sabit Soyer insisted on restricting which nations could and could not take part in order to head off potential political arguments. For their part, the KTFF claim that the NF-Board made unreasonable financial demands.^[1]

The upshot of this was that the NF-Board decided to grant the hosting rights for the tournament to Occitania. In response, the KTFF announced that they would hold their own tournament, the ELF Cup, scheduled for the same time as the VIVA World Cup. Some NF-Board members have accepted invitations to take part in the ELF Cup.

[edit] Occitania 2006

Occitania announced that the tournament would still be held between the 19th and the 25th of November 2006, with games played at the in and around Hyères les Palmiers, near Toulon. The number of entrants was downsized to eight, in anticipation of the ELF Cup - which agreed to pay expenses - drawing NF-Board members away from the VIVA World Cup. However, a lack of suitable competitors meant that the tournament was to include six teams: Monaco, the Romani, the Sápmi, Southern Cameroons, West Papua, and the hosts.

However, the failure of West Papua and Southern Cameroon to attend the NF-Board General Assembly in September 2006, and logistical problems facing the Roma"^[2], threw new doubt on the tournament, which looked as though it may go ahead with just three teams. Fortunately, Southern Cameroons were able to agree to send a team, and four teams - twelve fewer than initially hoped for - were set to contest the title.

There were yet more problems for the organisers when Southern Cameroons were unable to take part because of visa problems, resulting in walkovers in all their games.

By the end of the week, Sápmi had triumphed, scoring 42 goals in their three games, and lifting the first VIVA World Cup trophy.

[edit] Sápmi 2008

The second VIVA World Cup were played in the Swedish town of Gällivare in Sápmi from 7 to 13 July 2008. The matches were played under the midnight sun. Twelve teams had shown an interest in participating in the men's tournament, while two had shown an interest in the women's tournament.^{[citation needed]} However five teams took part the tournament and Padania emerged as winners beating the Aramean team 2-0. The host, Sápmi, finished in third place. The women's tournament, with only two teams, was won by the host, Sapmi ahead of Kurdistan.

[edit] Championship Every Year

Three FA candidates made presentations proposing to host the VIVA World Cup 2010. They were Padania FA, Kurdistan FA and Gozo FA. In the General Meeting it was decided to hold the competition every year, with Padania hosting in 2009, Gozo in 2010 and Iraqi Kurdistan in 2011.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Padania 2009

Padania was the host for the 2009 edition. The tournament was played in some important stadiums in northern Italy. The final match was held in Verona on June 27, 2009, and saw Padania retain the title defeating Iraqi Kurdistan with a 2-0 score.

[edit] Tournament results

Year	Host	Final			Third Place Match
Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up	3rd Place	Score	4th Place
2006 Details	Occitania	Sápmi	21–1	Monaco	Occitania	w/o	Southern_Cameroons^
2008 Details	Sápmi	Padania	2–0	Arameans Suryoye	Sápmi	3–1	Iraqi Kurdistan
2009 Details	Padania	Padania	2–0	Iraqi Kurdistan	Sápmi	4–4 (5 - 4) ps	Provence

^ Withdraw before the start of the tournament.

[edit] Trophy

An artist's impression of the Nelson Mandela Trophy.

The VIVA World Cup Trophy was designed by French sculptor Gérard Pigault, and will be named The Nelson Mandela Trophy, in honour of the former South African president.^[3]

[edit] Titles

2 Padania
1 Sápmi

[edit] Topscorers

Year	Player	Goals
2006	Erik Lamøy Tom Høgli Steffen Nystrøm	6
2008	Stefano Salandra Giordan Ligarotti	4
2009	Svein Ove Thomassen Ennys Hammoud	5

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

^ "Worlds apart". World Soccer Magazine: p. 105. October 2006.
^ (Occitan) "The VIVA World Cup remains in question!". l’Associacion Occitana de Fotbòl official website. http://www.a-o-f.org/accueil/article.php3?id_article=113. Retrieved October 30, 2006.
^ "NF-Board Opens Registrations for the 1st Viva World Cup in Northern Cyprus". July 1, 2005.

[edit] External links

[0] "Worlds apart". World Soccer Magazine: p. 105. October 2006.

[1] (Occitan) "The VIVA World Cup remains in question!". l’Associacion Occitana de Fotbòl official website. http://www.a-o-f.org/accueil/article.php3?id_article=113. Retrieved October 30, 2006.

[2] "NF-Board Opens Registrations for the 1st Viva World Cup in Northern Cyprus". July 1, 2005.

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